1581 Bunting Map of the World as a Clover Leaf

One of the most sought-after and unique printed maps of the world

This is Heinrich Bünting's 1581 map of the world, dramatically presented as a clover leaf, in an early first block example. No other early map utilized this configuration. This beautiful woodcut appeared in Bünting's Itinerarium Sacrae, the first and for many years the only complete work of biblical geography. As such, this map's central positioning of Jerusalem and the Red Sea - recalling medieval mappamundae - is appropriate. The map's puzzling trefoil shape, with Asia, Africa and Europe each given a leaf, invokes Ptolemy's three parts of the world, as well as the medieval T-O map's tripartite form. The map's title, however, gives insight to Bünting's motivation for producing so singular an image: Die ganze Welt in ein Kleberblat, welches in der Stadt Hannover, Meines lieben Vaterlandes Wapen translates to:

The Whole World in a Cloverleaf, Which is the Arms of my Dear Fatherland, Hanover.

Bünting is using the centerpiece map of his book to tip his hat to his home town.

Publication History and Census

This map has long been a justifiable favorite of collectors, and has appeared on the market with regularity, though attractive examples are becoming harder to source. Perhaps ten original examples of the separate map appear in OCLC. The Itinerarium totes Sacrae Scripturae appears in many editions in institutional collections. This is an example of the first block, appearing in the 1581-1582 Helmstadt editions of the Itinerarium: most examples on the market were printed from later, re-cut blocks and printed in Magdeburg.

Cartographer

Heinrich Bünting (1545 – 1606) was a Protestant pastor and theologian. He was born in Hanover, and studied theology at the University of Wittenberg. He earned his Master's degree in 1569. He remained in Wittenberg as a pastor there, before being appointed to that same position at Alt Calenberg, in the service of the Dukes of Saxony. The estate was dissolved when the marriage of the Duchess Sidona and Duke Eric the Younger foundered, and Bünting became pastor in Gronau in 1575. In Gronau, he wrote his two major works - the 1581 Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, and the 1584 Brunswick and Lüneburg Chronicle. He produced a smaller work on Biblical coins and measures in 1582. He would briefly serve as superintendent in Goslar, but he would be dismissed as a result of theological differences. Stung, he returned to his hometown and changed to the less controversial profession of a beer brewer, until his death in 1606. The work for which he is best known, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, was the first complete summary of biblical geography. It remained in print in more than sixty editions, long after his death. Earlier editions contain some of the most distinctive and sought after maps, most notably his map of the world in the shape of a cloverleaf, and an allegorical map of Asia in the form of a Pegasus.   Further Details...

Source

Bünting, Heinrich Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, Helmstadt 1581    

Condition

Excellent condition. Complete margins, no mends or stains. Reinforced at folds, no loss or mends.

References

OCLC: 558017326 cf. Shirley 142; Nebenzahl, Maps of the Holy Land, pp. 88-9.